


Hidden In Plain Sight

by tielan



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Maria is a BAMF, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-10
Updated: 2014-04-10
Packaged: 2018-01-18 20:07:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1441171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/pseuds/tielan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nobody notices a woman who walks one step behind a man.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hidden In Plain Sight

Nick's granddaddy wasn’t a fool. He carried a loaded .22 in his lunchbag, _and_ a knife in his boot. _Better bled than dead,_ he told Nick when Nick’s mom couldn’t hear.

Nick tells Rogers about the gun, because he needs the other man’s trust.

He doesn’t tell Rogers about the knife, because sometimes you need a surprise in a fight.

* * *

Consciousness equals pain.

But pain means he's alive. Probably. Unless he's in hell. In which case this is just the start of a whole lot more pain.

Nick believes in hell. But he somehow doubts hell has beds. And IV drips that chill the back of your hand. And Doc Fine murmuring to someone in the background – and that someone murmuring back.

Female, low and throaty, clean cadences smoothly spoken.

He cracks open his eye and finds her standing at the end of the bed, arms folded over her chest. Intimidating, if you didn’t notice the red rims of her eyes or the pinch around her mouth.

“Agent Hill.”

“Sir,” she says. “You _bastard_.”

* * *

It took the Chitauri invasion to make him sure of Agent Hill.

The kind of agent who's smart enough to rise high in S.H.I.E.L.D is also the kind of agent who's intelligent enough to chafe at being told where to go and what to do by anyone. Sooner or later, they start thinking they should be running the show.

Hill didn't like her orders. Didn't much like the idea of the Avengers. But she did her duty and trusted Nick, and when she had the opportunity to stab him in the back with the Council, she turned around and defended him instead.

“ _You know what you have, don’t you?_ ” Phil had asked him once, watching Hill and Romanoff sparring on the mats.

Romanoff tossed Hill, head over heels, but Hill rolled and came up again, light on her feet. She’d be sore and bruised tomorrow, but she was holding enough of her own that Romanoff was giving her a good fight.

Nick knew.

* * *

The first rule of intelligence work: never reveal all your pieces – even to those you think you can trust. If you have to show the .22 in your lunchbag, keep a knife in your boot.

It’s kept Nick alive before. It kept him alive this time. Barely.

“Body and soul and sheer bad temper,” Maria observes when Doc Fine tells Nick he should be dead by all rules of God, man, and medicine.

Nick gives her a look. It used to work a treat four, maybe five years ago. “Excuse me. Did I give you leave to sass me?”

“I think I’m entitled after watching you die, sir.”

Grinning hurts. Nick does it anyway.

* * *

Technically, Maria should be next in line to take over S.H.I.E.L.D.

Nick’s surprised she’s here.

“Considering someone targeted you, I don’t think it would be wise for me to attempt it. They wouldn’t want to risk the bitch biting them once her master’s down.”

He doesn’t correct her droll self-indictment. They both know how wrong that assessment is.

Phil used to find it amusing that Nick – the big, bad Fury – had a soft spot for the lost women who grew carapaces around them to survive.

Then again, looking at Phil's latest protégé, Nick figures he might be down an eye, but Phil's down a leg to stand on.

* * *

“What’s the news on Rogers?”

She pulls up the feeds they’re keeping on S.H.I.E.L.D systems. “He worked over Rumlow's squad on his way out of the Triskelion."

"That's gonna sting."

"Last seen with Romanoff in suburbia." Hill frowns. "They used the drive in an Apple shop. And then PDA'd on an escalator."

Nick takes a look at the feed. "Not bad. He needs practise."

Maria snorts. "I'll put it on his training schedule right away, sir."

* * *

Hill goes out to infiltrate the Insight teams hunting for Rogers and Romanoff. Nick keeps an eye on the hooks they have in S.H.I.E.L.D feeds, but there's nothing about the two fugitives; nothing about Maria being caught.

There _is_ a lot of confused chatter from S.H.I.E.L.D personnel – the little people who joined up to help save the world from the things they didn't even know threatened it. Who continue to work to save it, even when they don't fully agree with the methods.

 _That's a lot of power in not many hands,_ Hill said when she saw the plans for Project Insight. _Who watches the watchmen, sir?_

Nick goes back to the feeds about the manhunt. And sees the missile launch for Camp Lehigh.

* * *

It's past midnight before she gets back.

Nick's been in and out of consciousness all evening, but he's checked the feeds every time he came up. Nothing about catching Rogers and Romanoff. Nothing about Hill.

"There was something there at Lehigh – more than just the old S.H.I.E.L.D installation. I didn't have time or space to dig deeper – we were set to work out where they were going next."

"And your opinion?"

"Anyone associated with S.H.I.E.L.D is out. And Stark's too obvious." She winces as she massages her temples and shoots the offending helmet a glare. "Rogers is more likely to have unexpected and untraceable contacts, and he'd be calling the shots at this stage. They'll lay low until morning. I know I would."

"Good work, Hill. Get some rest."

* * *

She's up and gone before dawn, checking in on him and Doc Fine.

"Back into Insight?"

"Best place to hide a white tiger, sir. And I'm on site if they find anything."

As plans go, it’s not very detailed. On the other hand, some of Hill's best work has been when she went off the map. That was how she came to S.H.I.E.L.D's notice in the first place, wasn’t it?

So all Nick says is, “Curfew’s 9pm. Don’t be late.”

She flashes him a faint, feral smile and goes.

* * *

_I lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming._

Having been the target of bigotry often enough as a black man in a position of power, Nick's very much aware of how to use prejudice to his advantage.

Everyone looked at Phil – the perfect agent, Fury's seeing eye.

Very few people notice a woman who walks one step behind a man. Very few people give her a second thought. But while she's walking one step behind, she's learning everything she needs to know about how to step up and take command.

While she's walking one step behind, she's out of sight and out of mind.

She’s the knife in Nick’s boot, the eye behind the patch.

And, as Pierce learns, the eye that Nick keeps out of sight still has its uses.

**Author's Note:**

> The saying is:  
> Q: _Where do you hide a white tiger?_  
>  A: _Among a bunch of other white tigers._

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [A: Carefully](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1602041) by [Lotl101](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lotl101/pseuds/Lotl101)




End file.
